The writer in the translators’ workshop (2006)

The third workshop for literary translators, a workshop aimed at promoting the translation of Basque literary works into other languages, was organized by EIZIE (Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea, the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language). The workshop took place on October 24-27, 2006, at the Ficoba conference center in Irun.

Since it is our custom to invite the author of the work that won the Euskadi Prize the preceding year, the purpose of the workshop this year was to translate a work by Harkaitz Cano into three other languages: English, French and Galician.

For the workshop, the author chose the story “Batere valsik gabe amaituko da narrazio hau ere” [“No waltz at the end of this story either”] from his book Neguko zirkua [Winter Circus]; the translators were Kristin Addis (English), Kattalin Totorika (French) and Isaak Xubin (Galician).

As always, the participants discussed their experience in the workshop at a round-table on the last day, and the audience was treated to the reading of a selected passage from the story in all four languages. The round-table was held at the Ficoba conference center.

The participants also discussed their experience on the “Arratsaldekoa” [“Afternoon”] program on Euskadi Irratia [Basque Radio].

The translations, together with the story in its original language and the author’s own translation of his work into Spanish, were published in Vol. 31 of the journal Senez.

Additionally, on October 27, Juan Luis Zabala, Jon Alonso and Harkaitz Cano discussed automatic translation at a round-table moderated by Bego Montorio, who has translated a work by each of the three authors into Spanish). The round-table was conducted with the aim of publishing the participants’ ideas on this topic in an article in the journal Senez.